Why is street photography important? Why does it matter?

When we look back years from now what will we have that captures the image of today’s culture? What did people wear? What did the buildings look like?

Besides photojournalism, street photography captures the look and feel of today better than just about any form of photography. We point our cameras at the people around us to document the beauty of now and preserve that for the future.

Will my children and their children be looking at cell phone photos 20 years from now? Will the selfie still be a “thing”? I highly doubt it. What they will have, are my photos of today and they will know what the year looked like and how it felt.

So I call to action all the photographers and lovers of street photography: Be brave and take the difficult shot. Approach a stranger and capture that moment. Support your street photographer. Future generations will be grateful you did.